The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC) has said it is not in any way causing delays in the passage of
the 2013 budget as recently claimed by members of the House of
Representatives, explaining that it has entirely cooperated with the
legislators in the budget debate processes.
This came as the Federal Government yesterday attributed the lingering artificial fuel scarcity to the strike embarked upon by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) over the refusal of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to recall its sacked workers.
Reacting to claims by the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Hon. Abdulmumni Jibrin, who had asked Nigerians to hold the corporation responsible for any delay in the passing of the country's 2013 budget, the General Manager Media Relations of NNPC, Dr. Omar Farouk, told THISDAYWednesday in a telephone conversation, that the corporation could not have been responsible for any delay in the passage of the 2013 budget by the national assembly.
Omar explained that the corporation had severally honoured invitations for appearance from various relevant committees of the national assembly, in which it had made presentations and clarifications on its crude oil production and revenue projection plans, adding that Jibrin's claims were unfounded.
He said: "We (NNPC) were there last week to defend our budget and whatever questions that the legislators wanted to ask the corporation could have been asked because they invited us and had the opportunity to ask for clarifications on our projections.
"The issue of the oil price benchmark also came up and was really dealt with, I don't know if there are other invitations from the national assembly for the corporation but we had appeared before the Senate and House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) where we submitted documents containing all of the information needed by the legislators."
Jibrin had said in his accusation of the corporation: "Nigerians should blame any delay in the National Assembly not passing the 2013 budget on time on the NNPC because the corporation has refused to appear before it to explain some critical issues relating to the revenue projection.
This came as the Federal Government yesterday attributed the lingering artificial fuel scarcity to the strike embarked upon by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) over the refusal of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to recall its sacked workers.
Reacting to claims by the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Hon. Abdulmumni Jibrin, who had asked Nigerians to hold the corporation responsible for any delay in the passing of the country's 2013 budget, the General Manager Media Relations of NNPC, Dr. Omar Farouk, told THISDAYWednesday in a telephone conversation, that the corporation could not have been responsible for any delay in the passage of the 2013 budget by the national assembly.
Omar explained that the corporation had severally honoured invitations for appearance from various relevant committees of the national assembly, in which it had made presentations and clarifications on its crude oil production and revenue projection plans, adding that Jibrin's claims were unfounded.
He said: "We (NNPC) were there last week to defend our budget and whatever questions that the legislators wanted to ask the corporation could have been asked because they invited us and had the opportunity to ask for clarifications on our projections.
"The issue of the oil price benchmark also came up and was really dealt with, I don't know if there are other invitations from the national assembly for the corporation but we had appeared before the Senate and House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) where we submitted documents containing all of the information needed by the legislators."
Jibrin had said in his accusation of the corporation: "Nigerians should blame any delay in the National Assembly not passing the 2013 budget on time on the NNPC because the corporation has refused to appear before it to explain some critical issues relating to the revenue projection.
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